El-P

That's one other thing that bothers me. Paul Wight was a surprise from nowhere, and it was cool in that sense, less in the sense of "Oh, an almost 50 years old guy from WWE shows up in AEW". But the fact he announces a big signing makes it seem like hey, no worry, the almost 50 years old guy from WWE is not the big deal here, something much more exciting is coming... and in fact, we get another almost 50 years old guy from WWE, who actually is not even as big a name as Big Show (much better addition to the roster in term of what he can bring to the company, yes, but not the "huge huge star" that was promised). It's almost like a ricochet of old WWE guy signing up and there is definitely a TNA feel to it (especially since Christian was the poster boy for this in TNA). This is not what you want at all. If anything, this entire show will teach AEW a lot of valuable lessons. They have showed in the past they were smart and learning, so let's see what's to come. I sure hope they make fun of the shitty explosion in BTE next week.

Matt & Jeff hardy > Bubba > Edge > D-Von > Christian. Yeah, he's 6 on those matches alone. He's actually n°1 in term of being a worker, but like it's been said, it's not what's debated here. The Godfather was over because he had a bunch of strippers in g-strings and hooker heels. Hell, Scotty 2 Hotty & Rikishi dancing were more over than Christian Cage during the Attitude Era... (which is why it's better when pro-wrestling tries to please the hardcore fans instead of a mainstream crowd) Debra's puppies were bigger stars. Let's get real here : Classic Attitude Era (1998/99) : Austin / The Rock / Mr. McMahon / Sable / Foley Later Attitude Era (00/01) : Austin / The Rock / Mr. McMahon / Triple H / dunno who the fifth might be but certainly not Christian, not even close.

Well, Maki Itoh got a bigger response than Christian, so there is that...

That's one hell of a promo he cut there. Also, he did not mention Triple H. Seriously now. Mr. Kennedy comeback for next year's Mania season ?

Chapter 8 : The end of the Streak WrestleMania XXX (2014) - Undertaker v Brock Lesnar So, here we are. There are a few very striking things about this match. First off, Taker’s entrance is pretty classic with the grim vision of all the caskets of his fallen victims (do Triple H really gets three caskets by the way ?), including one for Brock which opens up and then is struck by lightning. Second, despite the undeniable big match feel of the whole thing, the crowd is honestly super tedious for most of it, and really dead at first. Some light Taker chants never really take off, some light boos when Lesnar poses after beating down Taker. It’s really for the longest time a heatless match. And the match itself really doesn’t help, as for a good portion of it, it’s a downright dull and tedious affair. Brock starts off with a great belly to belly but after that point, it’s plodding city. He sells for Taker for a while, as Taker attacks his left arm, a set up for Hell’s Gate I guess, but Lesnar really will never sell his arm in a meaningful fashion anyway. Comparatively, Brock goes for Taker’s leg for a while, including a cool one legged takedown outside, but this is pretty much killing time in a rather slow and un-engaging fashion. But the one thing that is so striking is that Taker really looks old there. His body looks old, he gets gassed really quickly, he doesn’t even go up to the top rope before getting countered on the Old-School tease, he bumps awkward on the padded barricade outside. In other words, Taker really looks like an old dragon fighting his one match too many. Yeah, probably did not help that he got concussed early on. There’s this chokeslam early on following Snake Eyes for which Lesnar jumps really high. Later on when Taker does the Snake Eyes again, as if he was not able to dig into more of his old moveset, he’ll do the big boot combination but the switching of the cams makes it impossible to see how clear he hits it. Really, there’s something pretty sad to watch already. There’s a complete lack of intensity and dynamics and it’s like the crowd knows it, as they really only wake up after the first chokeslam/F5 kick outs, as if spamming finishers is what they were waiting for. Then there’s this really awkward transition into Hell’s Gate, easily the worst ever, as it almost seems Lesnar was waiting a bit longer to walk toward Taker as he saw the guy was totally gassed, so in the end it’s almost like he’s giving him his arm, there’s no sense of struggle, no snap whatsoever. And as he’s lifting Taker to drop him down, he’s not displaying incredible power either, Triple H was about as impressive doing it. Plus they actually repeat the spot, only even much sloppier as the hold is just pathetically applied. This match is now officially the crappiest shoot-style match ever, with Lesnar himself doing his armlock reversed by Taker and Tamura vs Khosaka it isn’t at all... Meanwhile, Heyman is about as comedic as Paul Bearer ever was, doing these cartoony, oversell facials. Taker is soooo gassed and out of it at this point, no wonder he has no recollection of any of this, he actually looks like a zombie now. And it gets sadder as he goes for Old-School and very tentatively walks two footsteps on the rope as if he’s afraid and then Lesnar just grabs him on his shoulders for the second F5 and second kick-out-of-finisher, which is the only thing that really works (Lesnar’s selling of it is quite good). The match really lacks any sort of real intensity and keeps on plodding around until they do the Last Ride trope and it’s like the worst Last Ride ever, Taker looks totally washed out, really. Lesnar really grabs Taker’s body, as he should for his own sake, for the Tombstone and it’s a kick out that everyone expects after five straight years of everybody kicking out of it. So yeah, the crowd’s reactions by this time are much bigger but still not nearly as big as what you’d expect. There’s definite a sense of fatigue, of not being into it. When Taker goes for another Tombstone and it gets reversed into a third F5, it’s almost like « business as usual » and we’re expecting yet another kick-out because the finish as to be something more special, but nope. It *is* the finish. There was actually a buzz in the crowd which I had totally forgotten. Then the buzz kinda dies and we get that sidération feeling, but you still got the sense no one expected this to happen *there*, with *this* spot. The announcement gets mild boos, some « bullshit » chants too. It’s an odd feeling but watching Taker in this match, it does looks like a mercy killing. In a way, it’s poetic justice as Taker is « Human After All », the Myth has vanished. But seeing Taker getting old IRL and not being his old self was legit sad. The fact Lesnar really gained nothing out of it and the plan was to put over Roman Reigns (as if you could transfer the aura of Taker to Reigns like this was just a mathematic operation, which is a ridiculous idea, and I’m not even talking about how tone death the Reigns push was then) makes the whole thing rather hollow, which is the feeling at the end. The match wasn’t good, the finish kinda fell flat, Taker looked like he should have retired two years before. I can’t say it did not work at all as the ending stretch was « ok », but I can’t say this worked well either, not for the crowd, not from a booking standpoint, and certainly not from a quality standpoint. Post-match was nice with the crowd thanking Taker. Felt like the end. It should have been, because it’s only gonna get worst and more sad from there. 12-1-9

I agree with all of this. They need to refocus, as showed by Revolution. Sting getting a win over Ricky Starks strikes me as really odd. I gave them the benefit of the doubt about Miro for too long, he needs to get away of Sabian now and they need to push Penelope as a single star. Focus on the core group of great workers, because that's what the AEW fan want to see (no reason for Max Caster to be in a big match at all). Don't sign any over 45 guys from WWE anymore, please. Focus on the best women and those with real potential as stars (no reason for Big Swole to get a push ever again).

One thing is for sure, Austin Aries being an idiot is not a theory. It's been proven by scientific facts.

That's coming up. The debate on this thread about Christian being a top 5 Attitude Era guy was funny though. And yeah, @Loss is right, sign Debbie Malenko already ! BTW, Maki Itoh is the greatest thing ever apparently. Just put her on my TV every week. It's too bad Josh Alexander is stuck in IMPACT, because The North vs the Young Bucks and FTR would have been awesome matches.

I laughed.

Disclaimer : I have not read the thread at all and have only watched the show today (while successfully avoiding spoilers.... with bittersweet results in the end), so I don't know what you all thought of this, but I think I can guess. Hey, it had to happen eventually. AEW finally has disappointed me greatly on a big show, with TWO huge mishaps. 1/ Christian fucking Cage. I shook my head... I mean, nothing against the guy at all, and if they did not hyped him as some sort of huge star signee, I would have been glad to see him show up and maybe get a great last sting like Jericho's first year in the company, a stint he never had in WWE for petty reasons (but taking in account that he should not be used TNA style). But in this context, with the big time hype, I just shook my head. In a way it was good we had that discussion about him the other day, because I believe I ended up less disappointed than I would if I had seen this cold turkey, but still... What a letdown (again, I'm a big fan of the guy, nothing against him, but the hype was wrong) 2/I was loving that whole Onita tribute match, with tons of little details to Onita's style (including those damn figure-four spots which probably have confused some people). I LOVED the smart counter to the One Winged Angel pinfall. I LOVED Eddie Kingston jumping to protect Mox from the deadly explosion, total Onita style. But...have you seen Onita's matches explosions ? Like the one against Hayabusa ? It looked like the apocalypse, not like Big Daddy Cool's pyros... I think I died a little inside, shook my head again and then went "Well, PWO is gonna have a field day with this, and it'll be 200% right". The whole show felt kinda off honestly, with a "good" Young Bucks match, which by their standards is disappointing, Miro's match although quite entertaining when he was battling Orange, still feeling like an afterthought and I hope now that Miro is gonna break away from Sabian (I gave them the benefit of the doubt for too long honestly, it's time to get serious now) and mostly a very disappointing ladder match. Ethan Page is a cool signing for AEW and I was totally expecting him, so I was happy about that, but fuck me Max Caster has no business on my TV, much less on PPV, what the hell do they see in him ? Shitty raps with 15years behind Cena-like gimmick and Buff Bagwell level work don't work for me brutha. Archer and Penta made it fun but the other guys were kinda there, it was too long and drawn out and not that crazy (especially compared to the previous ones in AEW). Scorpio Sky is a really odd choice for a winner too considering he's done nothing for months and did not feel like he had any momentum. I did enjoy Shida vs Mizunami a lot, the Casino tag-team royal was a lot of fun, Hangman vs Hardy was as good a single Matt Hardy match is gonna be in 2021 and the ending was terrific, the cinematic match was cool and all although not a fan of giving 61 years old Sting the win against a future star. I mean, it doesn't *really* matter because it's less a match than a Lucha Underground-like vignette and you don't want Darby to beat him either in such circumstance, and you gotta give one to Sting I guess, but still, felt a bit odd. And I did love the main event, as an old Onita fan. Until.... these explosions, which I guess in a very meta way was an tribute to the Cactus Jack vs Terry Funk Deathmatch Tournament Final (yeah, the explosions totally sucked then too if you remember, but Terry Funk saved it by looking puzzled as fuck all), but nah, you know it was just a very poor pyrotechnic work (the landmine outside should have clued everyone though, as it looked quite lame too compared to the Onita ones, although I understand why you don't want to do that kind of crazy shit in the US in 2021, but then again, don't do the gimmick then). And it made the post-"explosion" angle look stooooopid as hell, when he should have been great on paper. So, there, first AEW major show that I have no choice but to call a letdown, with two BIG TIME faux pas.

Omega vs Suzuki. Make it happen.

You mean the gimmick match that drew 30.000 to 50.000 people without TV for FMW at Kawasaki Stadium in the 90's ? There's nothing outlaw mudshow about this, Onita is one of the biggest star ever and this is is signature match. Absolutely a one-match show as far as potential greatness goes, but an Onita style match between two of the best workers in the world in 2021, I say this can be one of the most memorable match of the year, at the very least.

Ok, yes, from that point of view, sure. But since I'm used to people shitting on Omega for "lacking psychology", which is like the most ridiculous thing ever, I was half-reading the analogy as something of the sort, since Toyota has been categorized as a go-go-go worker (which she is, from recollection, but that's not a criticism in itself as I put Flair & Angle in the exact same "category"). Not sure yet if I'm up to doing a top 100, but I already have a few ideas of watching/rewatching in mind : classic joshi (80's & 90's), focus on Daniel Bryan (which is a huge black spot for me apart from the most famous WWE stuff), revisit older Terry Funk, explore lucha libre, explore the French catch stuff, follow closely the best modern stuff (and check out some classics from the late 00's/early 10's, and yes I mean NJPW, not WWE). That's for a basis. I have no desire to re-watch any Ric Flair match for the tenth time nor anything from 80's or 90's US pro-wrestling for that matter (nor TNA !!!! that's a done deal and provide arguments for guys like Styles, Angle maybe Daniels too...).

I haven't watched a Toyota match in eons, maybe 15 years, but from there I don't see where the analogy comes from. I would definitely vote for both though, but Toyota would need a serious rewatch, like all the classic joshi candidates really.

If there was ever an argument that watching a lot doesn't mean anything !

Yeah, great match. Okada's bumping and selling was something else. With all due respect, it blew away Tanahashi's match with Takagi. Forget EVIL and SANADA, this is the guy you want to push toward the top now, he's got everything going for him. Honma vs Suzuki was everything you'd expect and more. Honma doesn't look like his old self, he moves funny at times, but they really beat the hell out of each others and how many years Suzuki can keep up at being this great ? KENTA vs Juice was kinda there for a while then turned out quite good in the end. KENTA's troll clapping is funny heel stuff.

WCW Clash of the Champions-like special episodes of the TV show, basically, with either bigger main events of unique matches. Which is really a cool idea.

Hey, people remember the infamous blackfaces from DX, but it has been kinda forgotten than in the "classic" gang wars angle, the babyface faction were a bunch of white bikers, two of them actually sporting SS tatoos... (of course you had those porto rican gangstas but everybody forgot about them anyway, including the bookers, which sucked as they were the best workers of the bunch)

WrestleMania 29 (2013) – Undertaker vs CM Punk Maybe the previous year was indeed the End of an Era, because this sure looks like we’ve passed onto the other side of the hill. First, I’ve gotta say, I find the Paul Bearer angle to be really trashy. And Heyman acting goofy with the urn was really not that great either. That out of the way, Living Colour performing live was all kind of awesome. Probably the best musical performance at Mania (ok, that’s not that hard, but they did had Motörhead). And the NYC setting is awesome too. Ok, the match. Well, really after the epicness (for better or worse) of the last four matches, it's gonna be hard to believe anyone could beat Taker. They really have booked themselves in a corner now, and the mythical aspect of the whole thing has been reverted to this personal issue, which kinda makes it a lesser affair in the grand scheme of the WWE lore. And lesser is the name of the game here, it’s the first time Taker visibly doesn’t look the same. His body isn’t as fit, he still works fast and hard but he seems to breathe heavy after the intense beginning and there’s a lot he doesn’t do anymore. Like the previous year, Old-School is countered and Taker takes the bump from the post, as if he can’t (or doesn’t want to) do the rope-walk anymore. He teases the über-plancha but doesn’t do it either as Heyman gets on the apron and stops him as a distraction. He does the leg getting caught but on the second rope, not the top one. And he doesn’t do the Last Ride, which is extremely noticeable as it’s basically his n°2 finisher (that needs to be kicked out of, really). CM Punk really does carry the load of the meat here (see what I did ?) and he’s displaying terrific charisma, does great facials and produces all the big spots of the match including actually doing the Old-School rope-walk successfully, then trying again and crotching himself, doing the Savage elbow both in the ring and outside onto Taker who’s laying on the table (which doesn’t break and you can *hear* the crowd being disappointed by this fact). And it is a really good match and all until the finishing stretch, which pushes it toward the great level, but there’s something about kicking out of the Tombstone which seems almost obligatory at this point, because it’s been kicked out of every year for four straight years now. Anything less would make CM Punk look like a much lesser guy, and this despite Taker aging, which really isn’t being taken in consideration in the context of the never-dying Streak. So yeah, they do work several cool reversals like said Tombstone off a GTS counter, Punk also re-does Micheals counter of the Hell’s Gate, although much more sloppily. And they do this kinda goofy spot with the urn off the now infamous trope of « getting on the corner so Taker can do the Last Ride », and it really shows on this one that Taker has lost a lot of his power. It’s goofy because the urn shot is a bit of a throwback to the 90’s really, and as much as it makes « sense » in the context of the angle, let’s be real now : Taker has sustained a dozen chair shots, a sledgehammer in the face and multiple deadly finishers the previous years, this lame-ass urn shot is kinda weak shit for a credible nearfall. The crowd plays along, but really now... Maybe the best visual of the whole match is Taker sitting up while being in the Anaconda Vice and staring at a petrified CM Punk with his eyes bulging out. Ending is what is expected... for the last time. CM Punk’s heavy load carrying goes a long way into making this an excellent, maybe even great, pro-wrestling match, with an Undertaker who for the first time, looks like he is noticeably sliding down the hill. Which is why it was probably now *too late* to ever end the Streak, unless turning it into a mercy killings of sorts, which would have sucked and damaged its aura . 12-9

A brand new version of the Nation of Domination was in the works for a while. Here we are. The cringe potential is huge.

Really now, this is awesome. Best promo of the year. How can sad Mox with hair on fire stuck in barbwire be so cute ?

We're clearly running in circles now.

I swear whoever shows up now will be a disappointment anyway, so might as well be Christian anyway. Wait, he's signed. And he's not a huge star. But it's him. Unless it's a surprise. Which it is. Unless the surprise is Christian. Which would be a letdown.

That mentality has been absolutely true in the US for the last 20 years too. Kane has never missed a show.

Tony Khan used the words "a huge, huge star" on AEW Unrestricted. Christian is not a huge, huge star, by any metrics. He was never a huge star in WWE. Selling Christian as a huge, huge star to the AEW audience would be a huge, huge mistake.